Speed Climbing News

Hans' report on the Nose Record

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:31:00 +0000

Hans’s play by play of Wednesday July 2nd 2008.(credit to Bill Wright for dictation first draft.)

Wednesday at about 6:05 am we arrive at the base of Pine Line. Around a dozen people with us as we prep to leave the ground. Another two dozen along the trail in the forest below.

We solo up Pine Line to the ledge at the base of the first pitch to meet Tom Frost’s smile and camera.(Can’t wait to see the black and whites)

We do a warm up climb on the first pitch around 6:25am. Yuji takes a 20-foot fall onto a bashie if that popped it would have been bad. He had tick-marked a foothold and on the practice run thought it was a handhold. So he fell.

We rapped off the first anchor and rested 5 minutes.(leaving no fixed gear)

GEAR: Didn't bring any #3 Camalots and just one #2 Camalot and one #1 Camalot, two .75 Camalots, and one .5 Camalot. Then doubles below that. Four nuts, one cam hook, 18 quickdraws, four long runners. One Yates Rocker.

We started at 6:43:30 am. Hans arrived at the top of the first pitch in 5:20 (5:22 on Sunday the 29th).

Get to Sickle in 16:30 (16:20 on Sunday). Rocker used at the left side of Sickle. First gear exchange at the pitch 6/7 pendulum into the Dolt hole cracks and Stovelegs. Yuji puts the rocker on at the top of the 9th pitch to protect Hans on the weird 5.10 section just below this belay. 51 minutes to the top of Dolt, after getting the rope stuck on pitch 9 where Hans had to rap down 20 feet, free the rope, while Yuji was waiting. They lost a minute here. Yuji Fixes at the top of Dolt (first time they fix the rope). He climbs on 100-feet of slack while Hans jugs. We simul-climb to the top of Texas Flake and fix at the top. Hans jugs outside of Texas while Yuji starts bolt ladder. Hans simul-climbs the bolts while Yuji climbs the Boot. 1h13m for both of us to Eagle Ledge (1h03m for Yuji to the top of Texas Flake).

On the King Swing Hans hands Yuji the gear for the second time.Hans does a 360-degree barrel roll and the crowd goes nuts. Yuji drinks half a can of Xcyto energy drink at Eagle Ledge and Hans has the leftovers to chase his Double caffeine Tangerine Power Gel.

Yuji puts a Rocker on at the end of the 5.12a traverse (5.10c grabbing the bolts). Yuji clips the bolt on pitch 20 and goes from there to the top of pitch 21 (right past Camp IV) without any other gear. Yuji fixes at the start of the Great Roof pitch and while Hans jugs.

Hans was at Camp IV, what he has always called the halfway point, in 1h37m. That's not record pace. Of course he is revising the halfway point downwards. They averaged 5m06s per pitch for the entire route. In 2002 they averaged 5:27 a pitch.

Yuji climbs the 5.11 start of the Great Roof with just a loop of rope. As soon as Hans gets up there, Yuji hauls up gear on 4 mil cord, for third gear replenishment. Hans simul climbs the 5.11 first 35 feet of the roof pitch. Yuji just clips the fixed gear on the roof, so he only had 5 pieces across the roof. Yuji doesn't place any extra gear, he tensions and reaches between the fixed gear.

Hans was at the bottom of Pancake Flake in 1h48m.

Yuji fixes at the top of the Pancake Flake and by then Hans is 2/3's of the way up the pitch. Hans jugs the end of that pitch (11d) while Yuji climbs unbelayed up the 5.11 groove and then fixes again at base of camp 5. Hans jugs the groove then simulclimbs the 5.easy stuff up to the top ledge of Camp 5 while Yuji leads the Glowering Spot pitch (5.12c). during Pitch 25 Yuji pulls up 4th and last gear replenishment before reaching the top. Yuji uses a combination of French Free and aid climbing and fixes at the top of the pitch. Yuji climbs the next 5.11a pitch without a belay while Hans jugs. Yuji short-fixes again at the lower section of Camp VI. Hans jugs then simul-climbs the 5.8 below Camp VI and the 5.10d above Camp VI to get to the first bolt which is to the left of the Changing Corners. Note Hans passes by Camp six at 2:17 into the climb. Yuji clips three bolts here before swinging into the corner on the right.

Yuji fixes at the top of the Changing Corners pitch while Hans jugs,Yuji climbs the 10d handcrack without a belay and without placing gear until clipping some fixed gear near the top.

Yuji fixes again at top of pitch 28 and Hans jugs. Hans says he was pretty wasted at this point and not simul-climbing, but did get up 20 feet above the belay before Yuji fixed him. Yuji fixes again at the base of the 10b crack, aka wild stance, and takes off. Wild stance at 2h33m with just the 10b crack and the bolt ladder and finishing slab to go. When Hans gets to this belay he doesn't even bother putting Yuji on belay. He simul-climbs the 10b crack and climbs the bolt ladder. Yuji places no gear in the 10b crack because he has no gear left. Yuji leads from the base of the Glowering Spot to the summit without re-gearing!!! And this a very small rack!

Yuji arrives at the top tree and pulls the rope in as Hans climbs, crawls, scrambles, and runs to the tree. Hans lays gasping for air as Yuji comes close to see the time on the watch.

Monday: 4:48
Thursday: 3:28
Sunday: 2:47
Wednesday: 2:43:33 (previous record was 2:45:48)

Congratulations!

Bill Wright, edited by Hans Florine 7/5/08

24 HOURS OF CLIMBING

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 23:08:00 +0000

From the American Alpine Club E-news:

24 HOURS OF CLIMBING

A novel event in Arkansas last month challenged climbers to lead as many routes as they could in 24 hours. More than 60 two-person teams entered the 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. The winning team—Clay Frisbie and Todd Johnson—each led 42 climbs up to 5.12a/b, with nothing easier than 5.10! Competitors in three difficulty categories could choose any of the 300-plus sandstone routes at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch; more points were awarded for harder routes and for trad leads. Only the leader got points for the route, and it had to be a clean, no-falls ascent to count. Sounds like fun! See www.24hoursofhorseshoe.com for photos and more information.

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 19:28:00 +0000

Bill, Stefan, and Dave Stewart (left to right) starting up the Front Porch in the last race of the SMSC Tour de Flatirons.

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 19:28:00 +0000

Stefan (left), Dave Stewart, Bill (white shirt), and Mark Cartwright (red shirt)

Mackey takes the Tour de Flatirons

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 18:59:00 +0000

Yesterday in the third race of the SMSC 2005 Tour de Flatirons Dave Mackey made it a clean sweep. Last year Dave had dominating performances in two of the five races, but he missed one, had navigational problems on another, and bad cramps on the third to miss out on the title. This year he left nothing to chance and no doubt who is the king of the Flatirons.

The race last night was as close as ever, though, as Dave faced a stiff challenge from not only the conditions, but 2004 Series winner and Slab FKT holder Jon Sargent. They finished just 23 seconds apart. Satan himself (Bill Wright) took advantage of the tired legs of Stefan and confusing climbing to just barely take 3rd place, three seconds ahead of Dave Stewart.

Full results and report are here: Slab Results

We had a record nine racers last night and we do it all again tonight! This was actually an early alternate race and the same race is on again today at 5:30 p.m. Bill and Tony are definitely going again. Hopefully we'll have about the same numbers.

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:18:00 +0000

I have obtained the exclusive video of this event and posted it here:

http://www.billwrightenterprises.com/videos/index.htm

I’ve heard that a mixture of short roping and minimal placements helped speed things along, as well as his anonymous partner was apparently quite familiar with the event. Derek and said partner passed two parties going to the summit. The route taken was Baker's Way to the North Ridge. He freed the entire route including the reachy, steep, difficult start and the crux slot on the Direct East Face route.

Rumor has it that the young speedster has now set his sites on the Third Flatiron record (under-10 record, so Stefan need not worry just yet).

Tour de Flatirons Series under way for 2005!

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:15:00 +0000

Dave Mackey takes the first two races, both of which saw record turnout!

The schedule with links to race reports and results is here:

http://www.wwwright.com/climbing/minions/2005RaceSchedule.htm

Bill

Hans climbs the Nose twice in 72 hours

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 23:26:00 +0000

Hans Florine climbed the Nose in a day on Monday, Sept. 19th and on Wednesday, Sept. 21st. They were his 59th and 60th ascents of the route, mostly in a day. He completed both ascents within 72 hours.

Burrell and Bakwin link three Northwest Volancoes

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 15:10:00 +0000

On June 9th and 10th Buzz Burrell and Peter Bakwin, both of Boulder, Colorado, linked Mt. Rainier (14,411'), Mt. Adams (12,276'), and Mt. Hood (11,239') in just over 28 hours, including driving time. They started at 2:42 a.m. on Rainier (9000 vertical feet), doing the roundtrip in 9.5 hours. They did the very direct and well-tracked Ingraham Direct route. Next was Adams (6700 vertical feet) and that went smoothly and easily in 6 hours, roundtrip. They finished just before dark and headed south to Mt. Hood (5300 vertical feet), which they started up at 12:35 a.m. on the 10th. They finished at 6:43 a.m. for a total time of 28m01m. This is 35 miles with 21,000 feet of gain. And lots of driving.

Peter posted a short report here at SummitPost.com.

New Hallucinogen Wall Record!

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Tue, 17 May 2005 20:11:00 +0000

Inspired by the recent one-day ascent by Doak and Griebel, Ryan Nelson and Jared Ogden returned to the route they nearly freed last year and crushed the previous record of 23h39m. Doing the route in three blocks with Ogden taking the middle block of pitches 8 through 14, the pair topped out in 8h59m! They free climbed lots of the aid climbing that Doak did. This continues a trend prevalent in Yosemite Valley: climbers who have freed or nearly freed the route, also have the speed records on the routes. Some Yosemite examples of this are:

Washington Column: Matt Wilder - only one to free route
Lurking Fear: Yuji
Salathe: Herson
Zodiac: Hubers
Leaning Tower: Houlding

More information on Nelson and Ogden's ascent can be found here: Climbing magazine news.

Zoroaster/Brahma in 18 hours - So. Rim to So. Rim

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Wed, 04 May 2005 21:21:00 +0000

A team of four (Buzz Burrell, Stefan Griebel, John Prater, and Bill Wright) from Boulder, Colorado's SMSC (Satan's Minions Scrambling Club) climbed Zoroaster (5 pitches, 5.9) and Brahma Temples (4th class) in the Grand Canyon in 18h09m south rim to south rim. The roundtrip involves 30+ miles of hiking (10 miles off trail) and 11,000 vertical feet of hiking, scrambling, and climbing. A full report is located here:

Zoroaster and Brahma Temples, Trip Report

Hallucinogen Wall Speed Record!

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 17:53:00 +0000

Boulderites Alan Doak and Stefan Griebel completed the first one-day ascent of the Hallucinogen Wall this past weekend when they did the wall in 23h39m. Alan did the aid climbing and Stefan (a 5.13 free climber) the free climbing. They are members of the local speed scrambling group (SMSC). They topped out in the rain.

Comments from Alan Doak:

Stefan and I topped out on Hallucinogen Wall after 23h39m of climbing (add 1h17m for the car-to-car time).

That was by far the hardest wall I've ever done. I led the 9 aid pitches (except for the last 25 feet of pitch 14) as a single block in about 17 hours. 4 of the pitches were A3 and 2 more were A3+ imho. It started raining as Stefan got on the last pitch, and things really got wet about an hour after we topped out... speed is safety. I took one 25 footer on pitch six and took another fall on pitch 10 when my hook popped immediately after I clipped the rope into the bolt... with the previous bolt 15 or 20 feet below me. Yikes!

I nailed 3 or 4 pins and chiseled one of Stefan's brassies into the wall. There was a ton of fixed heads and a boatload of hook moves... every aid pitch required hooking, and the 10th pitch had 5 bolts, a cam cluster and at least 35 hook moves. The first 5 pitches were 5.8-5.10 free/french-free that Stefan lead as the first block, then it was A3/C2/A3+/A3-/A3+/A3/A3/A2/C2, then Stefan did a short section of C2 to the top of 14 and a 5.9R chimney and 40ft of 5.8 choss to the top.

I've done about 14 walls, but none of them had such sustained hard aid climbing. The previous hardest was the Shield, but that felt tame by comparison. I had been psyching myself up for months and just put myself in the zone on my block. Normally I back clean heads because I don't want to replace them if I take a fall, but I started clipping all of them near the top since I was ready to bail if I took a big zipper fall. Luckily that didn't happen.

Hans Wins National Speed Comp!

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 02:05:00 +0000

This past weekend (March 5/6) Hans Florine returned to the national competition at Mission Cliffs gym in San Francisco. The format was three runs up the wall to qualify for the final eight, single elimination format. The wall was forty feet high, and dead vertical. Hans did this in 4.95 seconds! He was the fastest qualifier. In the finals he went against Patrick Cassidy, the North American Champion from a comp in Mexico City. He beat Patrick on the first run up the wall by 0.25 seconds. Then they switched routes and he lost by just 0.1 seconds, so he won the national comp!

In the difficulty competition, 26 entered and 16 made the semi-finals. Hans finished 12th on the qualifying routes (12a - onsight, and 12c - eight people onsighted). Semi-final route was 13a and Hans got 3 holds from the end and finished 10th, just making the finals. The finals route was 13b and Hans finished 9th.

Hans is 40 years old and the next oldest competitor was 26.

Bill

"Efficient Climbing" vs. Speed Climbing

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 21:52:00 +0000

Opie alerted me to this thread.

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?m=57068&f=0&b=0

I posted the following:

Bill

------------------------------------

Ammon,

You wrote in your first post: "On one hand you have guys like Hans (no disrespect) who are frantically climbing when they are going for records. They run-it-out, cut corners and yell a lot at their partners."

Then you stated this: "If you’ve ever had the opportunity to watch an “efficient-climber” you will notice they are NOT in a hurry at all. They are usually calm and collective."

You make a number of good points, but let me start with this. If you've ever had the opportunity to watch Hans on a speed ascent you will notice that he is not in a hurry either. I know this sounds unbelievable to many climbers, but I watched his and Yuji's record ascent of the Nose and I videoed it. I just watched it again last night and it is so slow you have to watch it at high speed motion. I plan to put some clips of it up on my website in the future.

Anyway, back to the speed record. These guys climbed the Nose in 2h48m. You'd think they were just running up the rock, but they aren't. They ARE moving very efficiently. They ARE moving very continuously. And, yes, they ARE taking some chances, but for them these aren't huge risks. Yuji does run things out massively on 5.10 (and even on 5.12 on his Lurking Fear speed ascent), but Yuji climbs 5.15 and this is like me running out a 5.5 pitch. It isn't that crazy. For him.

I'm giving a speed show at Neptune Mountaineering later this month and I was doing to show Yuji's lead of the first 5.10+ pitch of the Nose. It doesn't look anything like that wild speed solo of Dan Osman on Bear's Reach at Lover's Leap near Tahoe (on some climbing video). Yuji is very methodical and it doesn't look all that impressive until you notice that he just led a 150-foot 5.10+ pitch in about 4 minutes (this is only 6 inches per second). The key is the efficiency. He almost never stops moving on the entire ascent. They simul-climbed 90% of the route.

So, even this extreme example of speed climbing is really efficient climbing. They aren't frantic and they aren't running. But they are moving efficiently and continuously up 3000 feet of rock, most of which is 5.10 or harder. That's impressive.

Is this as adventurous as your one-day, onsight, second ascents? No. Every climb isn't a huge adventure. At least for most of us. I love the adventure aspects and for the first ten years of my climbing, I almost never repeated a route for this reason. Now I see climbing as more than just an adventure, though that is still by far my favorite aspect. Sometimes, like when I do easy solos in the Flatirons above Boulder, it is just a respite from the run into the climb. Sometimes it's just a physical workout, done in a beautiful place. Sometimes it is a big adventure on a new (for me - I'll leave the first ascents to you experts), backcountry, alpine route. Sometimes it is working a sport project in Boulder canyon. And, sometimes, it is just to see how fast I can safely go on rock. To see how much climbing I can possibly get done in the two hours before I have to go to work on a weekday morning.

You know all this and I know (and you stated) that you meant no disrespect to "speed climbing." I just wanted to make it clear to others that even the really fast speed climbs don't look crazy, but look very methodical.

Oh, and Hans doesn't yell at his partners any more than a non-speedclimbing team. In fact, he communicates much less per pitch than probably any other type of climbing. The difference is two-fold: the climbing is compressed into a shorter time period and the climbers are very rarely near each other and hence the raised voices - merely to be heard, not to berate his partner to greater speed.

A great, fun discussion. I hope we can hook up for a route sometime. We've discussed it in the past, but no luck so far. I'd love to see such great, efficient aid climbing up close. Just like many others that posted here, I can't imagine how fast you climb those scary aid pitches.

Bill

New Edition of Speed Climbing is Out!

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:57:00 +0000

Hans and I finished our new edition of our speed climbing book. This time it is titled "Speed Climbing." It has a new cover photo, new stories, more history, lots of corrections, and is 25 pages longer. You can buy it at Amazon or better climbing and book stores near you. Or you can send me an email to get a signed copy.

I'll be doing a show at Neptune Mountaineering (in Boulder, Colorado) on speed climbing in January or February.

Pre-placed fixed gear for speed ascents?

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 02:20:00 +0000

Recently I saw two items that pretain to pre-placed fix gear as an aid to speed ascents. First, in a Sportiva email newsletter, I read about Brian Law cleaning up the Zodiac of tons of fixed heads, rurps, slings, etc. The route will be considerably more challenging to climb now, but Law claims it will be quite a bit safer as well, presumably because people won't be blindly trusted fixed mank. I'm sure the Huber brother's sub 2-hour ascent greatly benefited from all this fixed gear. Most of the hard free pitches on El Capitan have not been redpointed, but have been pinkpointed with fixed gear. In fact, Jim Herson did the first redpoint ascents of a number of the 5.12 crack pitches on Lurking Fear, after Caldwell and Rodden's first free ascent and before Yuji's onsight attempts. Anyway, I wonder how much of this fixed free climbing gear was left behind for the Huber's ascent... This would greatly speed things up for the Hubers, but it doesn't change the fact that awesome, bold, free and aid climbing is required to even approach the speeds they are moving at, even with lots of fixed gear.

The second reference to such tactics was the recent article in Climbing #234 by Vera Schulte-Pelkum concerning her record-breaking all-female ascent of the Nose. At the end of the article she makes a reference that the top speed climber's pre-fix gear before speed ascents. I'm not sure who she is referring to, but it is an unjustified slam against many of the top speed climbers, including the king himself: Hans Florine. Hans is a friend of mine and I witnessed his record-breaking Nose ascent with Yuji. He has NEVER pre-fixed gear for a speed ascent and is scrupulously ethical and honest about ever detail of his ascents. I've met Schulte-Pelkum a couple of times and she seems nice, but that comment greatly reduced my opinion of her. Total bush league.

Bill

2004 SMSC Tour de Flatirons Concludes!

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 16:53:00 +0000

The five race series of the Tour de Flatirons concluded last night with yet another victory for Jon Sargent. He won three out of the five races and takes the overall title based on placement by one point over Buzz Burrell, who finished 3rd in the final race on Seal Rock. Willie Mein took second. The full report can be seen here and there are lots of photos from the race last night. Congrats to all the racers in the series.

http://www.wwwright.com/climbing/tripreports/2004/SealRockRace.htm

Hans links Half Dome and El Cap for the 4th time

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:32:00 +0000

Hans Florine and Rosanno Boscarino climbed Half Dome's Northwest Face and the Nose of El Capitan in a single day on Sept. 17th. It was Hans' 4th time doing the link-up and 2nd time this year. He's also done the link-up solo in a day.

Details:

Started at Mirror lake 3:44 a.m.
Arrive Half Dome base 5:50 a.m.
Start climbing 6:15 a.m.
Top out on Half Dome 11:42 a.m. - Route time 5:27
Leave top 11:56 a.m.
Arrive base of Half Dome route 12:24 p.m.
Arrive Stables parking 13:55 p.m.

Eat pizza, drink cold stuff, gear up in meadow.

Start at base of The Nose 15:22 p.m.
Top out on The Nose day two 2:28 a.m. - Route time 11:06

base of Half Dome to top of El Cap: 20h13m

Leave top of El Cap 2:56 a.m.
Arrive at car 5:10 a.m. Round trip C to C 5:26

Great weather, T-shirts most of the time on Half Dome except the last pitch it was windy so we put on the long sleeve shirts. T-shirts on El Cap until Camp 4 where we put on long sleeves only to sit and wait for partner, else it was t-shirts. Rode bike from Mirror to Stables, and from Manure pile to El Cap meadow.

Rosanno led half the pitches on Half dome and four pitches on El Cap.

Buzz runs Half Dome in FKT!

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:19:00 +0000

I'm waiting for details, but Buzz ran the Half Dome trail on Sept. 23rd, roundtrip, in 2h49m. I ran this once and did 3h15m. I went up in 1h50 and Buzz went up in 1h47m - I'm sure that's not a coincidence. He smoked on the descent, though. This is the fastest known time for the roundtrip, beating Mark Spencer's time of 2h51m. Mark went up in 1h38m, though.

This is 14 miles, roundtrip and 5000 vertical feet.

Black Canyon Trifecta Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 23:31:00 +0000

Inspired by his good friend Mike Pennings' feat, Josh Wharton went to the Black Canyon to try to climb the same three routes in a day. Wharton teamed up with Thad Friday and started from the North Rim on Sept. 25th at 4:30am for Southern Arete. They returned to campground in 6h15m to refuel and then headed for Astrodog, arriving at 12:20pm. They topped out on Astrodog at 5pm, rapped, started up the Scenic Cruise at 7pm. They then "entered a fatigue induced time-warp", and arrived in camp at 1:15 a.m. They completed the link-up in the same order as Pennings and Jeff Hollenbaugh, though the latter party climbed The Cruise instead of the Scenic Cruise. Wharton said he just couldn't stomach another offwidth.

Pennings and Hollenbaugh did the link-up in just over 24 hours and now Wharton and Friday have done it in 20h45m. This is about 6000 feet of technical climbing and both Wharton and Pennings think it is harder than linking the Nose on El Capitan to the Northwest Face of Half Dome.

Huge new route on Great Trango Tower done in 4.5 days

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 20:12:00 +0000

From the AAC Newsletter:

American Alpine Journal Assistant Editor Kelly Cordes and Josh Wharton have made a bold, alpine-style first ascent of the enormous southwest ridge of Great Trango Tower (20,617 feet) in Pakistan. The mostly rock ridge rises more than 7,000 feet to the west summit of Great Trango. Cordes and Wharton started the climb with a single 28-pound pack, two ropes, and no bolt kit, and they succeeded in four and a half days, the last two without water. They descended via the peak’s north glacier just before a storm hit.

The southwest ridge of Great Trango was attempted in 1990 by a Spanish team using fixed ropes and high camps. In 2000, Americans Tim O’Neill and Miles Smart made an alpine-style attempt, reaching a point about 500 vertical feet below the west summit after five days of climbing. Beyond the previous high points, Cordes and Wharton found 17 more pitches of difficult ridge climbing, including the route’s crux.

The route is called the Azeem Ridge, VII 5.11 R/X A2 M6.

Mackey does it again in the Tour de Flatirons

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 04:58:00 +0000

There's a new sheriff patrolling the Flatirons above Boulder and his name is Dave Mackey. With his second victory of the year, he also notched his second course record in blitzing the First Flatiron, trailhead to trailhead, in just 33m19s, breaking the previous record by nearly two minutes. The former record holder, Buzz Burrell, finished second, also breaking his previous record. Buzz later said, "I thought something like that might happen. I've always done that essentially alone, so with Dave there pushing me I went faster ... but not fast enough!"

The race had a record female turnout (four competitors) and also newcomer Luke Parady. Luke might be a SMSC Tour de Flatirons rookie, but he's a famous climber who has redpointed 5.14c and boulder V27 or thereabouts.

More details and photos will be posted in the official results, early next week. Racers send me your time and any splits that you took (base of the First Flatiron, summit, back down on the ground).

Preliminary results are here:

1. Dave Mackey 33:19
2. Buzz Burrell 34:08
3. Stefan Griebel 37:??
4. Christrian Griffith 38:??
5. Jon Sargent 39:13
6. Bill Wright 41:06
7. Willie Mein 42:05
8. Chad Greedy 42:??
9. Luke Parady 4?:??
10. John Christie 48:45
11. Tony Bubb 57:??

In the womens field:

1. ?? - Christian's friend 1:12:??
2. Joseffa Meir 1:14:14
3. Kre Reischel 1:14:33
4. Cheryl Laslo 1:45:?? - fell running down the talus and bashed knee. Hiked out from there.

Wall of the Early Morning Light gets first one-day ascent

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 17:20:00 +0000

Ammon McNeeley and Brian McCray did the first one day ascent of the Wall of Early Morning Light! They sent it in 23:43

Jon Sargent Notches 2nd Victory in Tour de Flatirons

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 20:35:00 +0000

Jon Sargent nabbed his second victory of the series and is the only race with two wins thus far. The full report is located here:

http://www.wwwright.com/climbing/tripreports/2004/StairwayToFifth.htm

The race series main page is here and it lists the two remaining races (one make-up race):

http://www.wwwright.com/climbing/minions/2004RaceSchedule.htm

The standings for the overall series is here, but it hasn't been sorted yet...

Bill

McNamara and McNeely do first one day ascent of Never Never Land

noreply@blogger.com (Bill Wright) — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 05:05:00 +0000

Tuesday Ammon McNeely and Chris McNamara sent the first one day ascent of Never Never Land. 16 hours even!